Trump kicks off ‘thank you’ tour in Cincinnati

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CINCINNATI — The election is over, but Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail.

The President-elect kicks off what aides are billing as a thank-you tour through battleground states on Thursday with an arena rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, a state Trump won by nearly nine percentage points over Hillary Clinton.

The tour begins as Trump puts together his Cabinet, after naming nominees to head the Treasury, Commerce and Transportation departments, part of the huge task of standing up his administration before the inauguration in January.

Trump spokesman Jason Miller on Thursday said Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence would talk about “what’s ahead in the days in front of us and the positive change that we’re going to be bringing to the country.”

The President-elect’s strength in the industrial Midwest, rooted in his populist themes and harsh criticism of global trade agreements, was crucial to his surprise victory over Clinton. Not only did he win Ohio, a genuine swing state that President Barack Obama won twice, he also won Democratic-leaning states Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan that the Clinton team had billed as a blue wall that would deliver the White House to the Democrats for a third consecutive term.

Trump’s event will be watched to see if he employs the kind of free-wheeling, off-prompter rhetoric that helped him win the presidency or whether the responsibility of his impending duties tempers his wildest tendencies. Trump’s boisterous rallies became a regular occurrence throughout the primary season and general election campaign, at were the site of heated confrontations between supporters and protesters.

The President-elect will arrive in Ohio from Indiana where he highlighted the deal he made with Carrier, a heating and air conditioner firm to save 1,000 jobs that had been set to move to Mexico — fulfilling a campaign promise.